Possible horror/survival rpg idea.

[Curry-Kohai]

So, heres a new concept I've been thinking of, a horror/survival rpg.

Have you ever played demonophobia? I'm thinking something like that, just with a lot less gore, better controls, and no ovary boss.

I think I'm going to make you guys write in the characters first person, because that seems fitting. Also, I'm pretty sure your character should be able to die, now I'm definitely not thinking of instant deaths, but something more like amnesia, the dark descent, where theres an "insanity" meter, I don't know how it will work, but I'm guessing you role-play the insanity, then, if it reaches 100%, it makes your character commit suicide (or something).

This is a rough idea of what the mechanics will be like, any ideas? I want this to be rp heavy, but with a possibility of death, I would like some help thinking of some specifics on this, and if your willing to play.

[Doktor_Q]

I'd be willing to work on this! It sounds fun, plus, I like making mechanics.

In a very Call of Cthulu-style, you could have Physical/Mental condition- In short, injury/insanity. These could, for simplicity's sake, take the form of specific "injuries" you have, like a broken arm, bleeding, blinded eye, fear of water, irrational hatred of rats, paranoia, etc. Either a hard-lined "collect too many" or a general "have the wrong ones for the situation" results in actual death.

Or something.

[Trifkin]

I did a Lovecraft/Call of Cthulhu tabletop RP once. It was a lot of fun! I don't really remember the mechanics, though, for I was but a newb (still am, to this particular activity), and simply did as I was told and tried to play it true to my character (a nosy journalist).

[Curry-Kohai]

I can always rely on the doktor of Q.

Wow, I had never really considered physical damage to this, thanks.

So, heres what I'm thinking:
The game is set in modern times, with the players intending to escape some sort of structure/world.
When you start, you are given one phobia, which will be randomized from a list of all phobias, so it can either be game-breaking, or easy to have (I won't let you have extreme ones, like fear of the dark, fear of being alone, etc.)
So, while traversing this, maze-like place, I will pm you(?) on what your character sees, depending on the decisions that character makes, they're sanity will decrease/increase, or they're injury/phobia list will elongate/shorten. Which will be shown on the main thread/OOC discussion thread.
I don't know how this will work exactly, but this is a skeleton/alpha, how does it sound? Does it need any tweaking?

[zamisk]

rather than PM's why don't we just go to the IRC channel?

[PLA]

[Doktor_Q]

Dorf Fortress does that. Or something close to it. It monitors individual layers of skin.

For injuries/phobias, you could also give them "levels". Example: A wrist could be sore, sprained, broken, or severed entirely. You could extend phobias/neuroses with the same level, from "dogs make you uncomfortable" to "reduced to a gibbering wreck at the sight of anything dog-shaped".

To satisfy the death/insanity conditions, you could mark certain levels of injury/insanity as being fatal/critical/whatever, meaning that when reached, you just straight up die. Naturally not all injuries or insanities would have a lethal level.

Oh and, of course, not all kinds of insanity are fear. No group survival horror game is complete without something to make your former allies decide that your face looks really tasty.

[Skele Von Mann]

Granted, DF is also the same game where carp are lethal monsters, and at one point, you could melt in the rain.



So on death. That Demonphobia comment does give me the thought of our characters having infinite lives maybe, with memory loss (hopefully), or a Paranoia view of characters and death.

[Doktor_Q]

Infinite lives takes out part of the fun- unless, of course, it just goes until you're completely insane and become either useless or a psychopath. It's a survival horror, so there needs to be a way to not survive, as it is.

[Skele Von Mann]

I guess you have a point there.

[Curry-Kohai]

Hm, these are all great ideas, but I just noticed were ignoring a very important topic: monsters.

So, what i've been thinking is, there will be numerous monsters/demons/ghosts that will kill, hurt, eat, or simply stall a character or characters. A very high majority of which will reoccur often, and each (except for ones that tie in with phobias, obviously) has a way to be avoided, I probably won't let you kill them, unless given a specific item or something.

Now, back to damage/ phobias.

Now that i'm thinking, I'm thinking of putting in a colored in picture of your character in a reference pose, similar to the metroid status screens. When damaged, I will color it a cetrain way, green, yellow, and red, cooresponding with state of health in that joint/body part. (green being healthy, red being hardly useable, white being either off or un-useable, etc.)
For phobias, I really like the doktors severeness idea, so, in the status page, it will say, in the phobia section "disturbed by _____" all the way up to "mortally terrified of ______"

As it is true that phobia isn't sanity, I think i'm going to stop thinking about that until these ideas are ironed out, so how do they sound? Do they sound easy to use/access, or what? Thanks again.

[Doktor_Q]

Well, the basic idea is taken from one of the expansions to Arkham Horror, where it was one of the most sensible rules, and also has plenty of room for roleplay. Also, might I suggest black or gray for completely destroyed?

[Skele Von Mann]

Monsters: Sounds like a good idea, just "boss" types right? Course, it might be a tad freaky if by chance certain monsters were actually helpful or at least, not as lethal. As in, getting eaten by one...and simply appear in a another area. Although that doesn't really sound bad until you meet up with your party who just escaped a shapeshifter...


Sounds good, though I don't put pictures very often.

[Doktor_Q]

Have you tried Yume Nikki at all? It's great for some of that stuff, aside from being all fun and atmospheric to begin with.

Regarding status colors:
Blue(fine) -> green(mild) -> yellow(moderate) -> red(severe) -> purple(Oh crap!) -> Gray(useless/missing/dead)

Regarding injury/madness:
Think of something like EO's binds, mixed with status effects, I guess.

[Skele Von Mann]

Play Yume Nikki
Explore
Never find anything interesting.

Damnit.


Speaking of setting, I could see some ideas. Maybe one room could be a place where one of the characters had a previous trauma, a place where just all their phobias are just waiting [to happen], etc.


So uh on characters. There's already Phobias, what else? I could think of traits (IE a horror movie fanatic who would be less susceptible against jump scares), beginning equipment (ranging from flashlights to firearms which might help. Might).